Adam Benjamin

Adam and Kirstie are long time practitioners of improvisation with a rigorous yet playful approach to their art form. Each will lead sessions and fully participate and contribute to each other’s through a process of on-going dialogue shared with participants.

Morning sessions with Kirstie include a synthesis of Contact Improvisation, Aikido and movement meditations - simple physical principles allow participants to explore the experience of moving and understanding their own bodies more profoundly. Participants will absorb the skills of dancing in partnership with others and improvising with greater sensitivity to each other and the environment. Her approach engenders full and fearless dancing, and her insights allow participants to discover a wealth and breadth of understanding that can be applied to any aspect of their art-making and lives.

Afternoon sessions with Adam will introduce spatial and temporal scores, and bring to the fore the issues that arise in shared practice; these embrace supporting and building on material as a group, and how and when to give space to others. Adam explores issues of freedom, decision-making and absence; he encourages a supportive environment where risk can be taken and in which reflection and poetry are considered essential partners.

A performance with Adam Benjamin, Kirstie Simson and musician Jamie McCarthy. The performance will be followed by a discussion with the artists about their different approaches to improvisation.

Biography

Adam Benjamin is an improviser, an award winning choreographer, writer and teacher, recipient of a National Teaching Fellowship 2013. A founder member of Five Men Dancing, he has performed and taught with Kirstie Simson, Kim Itoh, Jordi Cortés and Russell Maliphant. He was joint founder/artistic director of Candoco Dance Company and has made work for community and professional companies around the world, including introducing integrated dance to South Africa after the dismantling of Apartheid. He has been a Wingate Scholar, an Associate Artist at The Place and a Rayne Fellow, and now lectures at Plymouth University.